Driver 3: Hands-on Impressions

Share.

Reflections' long-awaited action-driving game is finally about to arrive. How does it fare?

By Douglass C. Perry

As we have recently re-learned from our obsessive affection for Criterion's Burnout 3, there is nothing in videogames that's as satisfying as a great car crash. Reflections has specialized in the driving and destruction of cars from a good many years now, and now, with the third of the Driver series, we will get a new look at just how the British developer envisions the state of the car crash.

Naturally, Atari's development house isn't entirely focused on crashing per say. Truth be told, Reflections is obsessed with the car chase itself -- car chases that took place in movies in the late 1970s to be exact. Crashing just seems to happen a lot as a result of enormously fun/reckless driving. Designed to play like a Hollywood car chase film, Reflections' upcoming title is fashioned very much in the mode of the previous Driver games. It's about getaways and chases, and yes, you can step out of the vehicle and wield a gun, and run around on foot, but the game is still very much focused on the chase (and yes, the crash).

To that end, we're going to look a little deeper into the Career mode, which follows the exploits of the reckless undercover cop Tanner, a square-jawed, brutal force kind of cop who gets the job done through hard driving, undercover sneak jobs, and by using actions before words. The story follows his undercover work with a ring of criminals who are smuggling cars across the world and naturally, he becomes the "driver" for the mastermind behind it all. In the process he uncovers bit-players, sham-artists and several other styles of bad (and bald) men who fall in one way or the other. The game commences in Miami, Florida, crosses the Atlantic into the streets of the coastal city of Nice, France, and then traverses into Istanbul, Turkey.

Surprisingly, Driver 3 is designed much like the previous Driver titles. The intro cutscene acquaints you with the players, though it takes the course of the game to find out who they are and what their purpose is. The cutscenes are well choreographed, giving special attention to the game's excellent realtime lighting system, and this time around, Hollywood talent comprises a heavier role in the game's presentation. It's narrated by Ving Rhames of Mission: Impossible and Pulp Fiction fame, and Michael Madsen (Kill Bill Vol. 2) and Michelle Rodriguez (Blue Crush) lend their voice talents. But it's still very much a videogame by design, with a low priority in character development, and a high one in action.

If you've seen Steven McQueen's Bullitt or the French Connection, you'll have an instant understanding of Driver 3. Actually, the out-of-car aspect of the game reminds me an awful lot of Charles Bronson's films and Clint Eastwood's late 1970s Dirty Harry films. There are numerous references to these movies. One laughable scene puts you in the position of driving through the interior walkways of a mall searching for an exit, recalling the awesome chase scene from the original The Blues Brothers film, ditching cops on foot and police cars outside.

Where Driver 3 has expanded on Driver and Driver 2 comes into play quickly enough. Just like in the previous games, the massive environments show off the human race's ability to create illogically designed city streets peppered with a panoply of side streets, alleyways, asymmetrical designs, hills, parks, and garages. Relatively quickly you're introduced to speedboats and motorcycles. The boats I've played thus far are all powerboats, and they handle well. They level off when speeding so you can see over the bow, and the nose tips up when moving slower; they cut beautifully in the water, and there is a certain satisfaction in the sense of speed they deliver. Players can shoot a gun while driving a car or a boat, but not while driving motorcycles. When shooting and driving, a simple white reticule appears in the center of the screen and moves rigidly like a spatula panhandle in the direction the vehicle's pointed.

One of the more interesting changes in the level design is Reflections desire to work in out-of-car gunplay. Sure you can walk around in Driver 2, but these levels are intense and diverse. The driving/shooting ratio is still about 70/30%, or more recently, we've heard it's 80/20%. So, in many missions you'll find yourself chasing an enemy in a car, jumping onto foot, and in some of the bigger levels, driving a boat or motorcycle, all in one level. For instance, when you first confront the slimy crook Bacchus, you'll run and gun and drive. You walk around the building's left side instantly engaging in gun combat with three or four henchmen, and then follow Bacchus in a car chase across town. If you remember the Driver games of the past, the games are all very trial-and-error in design, so if you let Bacchus slip out of your sight for more than a block and a half, he's gone, and you have to restart.